I know I know....it's been ages since my last post. But I really do have some good excuses..and well yes..some bad ones too.!
It's that long ago I can't even remember what the first reason was...I think that I was sick. Then the kids have been sick and then there has been all the birthday parties. I think nearly the entire class of year 2's were all born in the same month! I am going broke with all the gifts. I would like to think that I could craft them all something, but there just hasn' t been any time. I have been busy sewing and crafting for my own childrens parties. I would love to be posting photos of everthing I have been making and doing, but one of those reasons for not writing has been that I like to have photos to post each time and so I have waiting until I could. You see, my camera died and I have been waiting for a new one which I have now, but have already misplaced, somewhere amongst the chaos and clutter of material and piles of washing...the downloading wire attachment thingy. So no photos until I find it! So I shall describe my projects to you and you can just use your imaginations.
I finally finished the quilt for Jemima. I then made loads of toadstool cushions as you do when your daughter is having a fairy party. They are red material with white felt dots all over them that I blanket stitched on to look like the toadstools. Now this whole party was going to be in the garden and so we had been working really hard on finishing all the garden beds and we made a sandpit in one corner that looks like a beach with dune plants along the edge and drift wood sitting on the sand. Eventually we will paint a mural on the wall behind. I planted Lavender around the edge of the new clothes line so that the washing can brush against it smell absolutely delicious. My new no-dig garden beds for the veggies are ready to be planted out now and I created a new herb garden by the back door complete with a pond.
We created an area that was to be the for the fairy garden that the girls were going to plant. However after all this work leading up to the party..it poured solidly for nearly two weeks. There was no way the girls were going to be able to go and dance around as fairies outside. So with only a day left I had to come up with something for inside. So a quick dash to the shops, I came home with two king sized pink and white checkered flannelette flat sheets that I stitched together at one end and hung over a rod from the ceiling to create a tent. We pinned the corners to funiture and on the ends I hung purple organza and pinned fake flowers all over the whole thing. It did look very inviting. Underneath I laid the new quilt that I had made her and placed all the toadstool cushions under there. I then whipped up a bunting of beautiful fabric triangles and hung it across the room. The dining table was covered with fairy glitter and stars and beaded wire in the centre and lots more flowers. We had merangue grubs, fairy cakes, marzipan toadstools, fairy bread (of course) and tiny teacups made with tic toc buiscuts for the saucer and marshmallows as the cups with a freckle chocolate as the froth on top and a half a life saver as the handle. They were very cute. A dolly varden cake made up as a fairy was a big hit too.
After party games the girls then went out onto the verandah to plant the fairy garden into an old tin bath tub. They loved doing this and then placed the iron fairy into it and sprinkled it with fairy dust (loads of fairy dust!) and made wishes. They then danced around the verandah catching all the bubbles from the bubble machine. Ahhh, success. Everyone had a lovely time and went home with an organza bag filled with lolly necklaces and a miniture fairy ornament, a tiny bottle of fairy dust and a wand, and other bits and pieces.
They all looked lovely and Jemima loved her new fairy costume that I made. An underdress of shimmering silver material and a skirt of green, pinks and puple strips of tulle and that sort of material, and peices of fluffy rainbow wool. A lovely jacket with a flared skirt in a shimmering pink material over the top with some wings velcroed on and of course the ballet slippers and hair plaited with flowers to adorn!
Lots of work but lots of fun.
Eli had also had a party before all that. A movie night party. We opened the front widow that was adorned with fairy lights as the ticket booth. They had to present their tickets ( the invitations) as they arrived to come in and recieved a popcorn box full of goodies for the movie. The lounge room once again was decorated with strips of film hanging across the ceiling. Good movie night food was easy...pizza & popcorn. They cake was also looked like a piece of film. They watched a movie projected on the wall while sitting on beanbags. Now 6 eight year old boys I thought, in my naivety, would sit quietly and watch the movie but no...they jumped, and wrested and had pillowfights (yes it was a sleepover). Fun was had with not much sleep.
Now parties are all over and I am exhausted but still lots of crafting to be done. My baby turns one in August so I am working on a quilt for him.
Another quilt that I am working on is called a Daisy Chain quilt. It is for a friend of mine who just lost her first baby three days before she was due. She named her Daisy.
